“We will randomly purchase parts in the marketplace from distributors to run through testing to make sure they are staying within the requirements they met originally,” Bekker said. “In addition, every month, we’re pulling parts off the production line at random to test and make sure they’re staying in compliance with the requirements as they were at approval.”

CAPA said it also “monitors vehicle safety recalls issued through the NHTSA to investigate whether a CAPA part was reverse-engineered from a defective OEM part.”

When a shop files a complaint about a part, Bekker said, CAPA sends a crate that the shop can use to ship the part to Intertek for review and testing.

John Yoswick, a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon, who has been writing about the automotive industry since 1988, is also the editor of the weekly CRASH Network (www.CrashNetwork.com). He can be contacted by email at john@CrashNetwork.com.